The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says his panel will "unpack the other side of the story" of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into President Donald Trump and his campaign.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, who spent the weekend with Trump in Florida, said his committee will investigate the actions of the Justice Department in the Russia investigation, including the FBI's use of a dossier compiled by British spy Christopher Steele.

Graham spoke Monday after Attorney General William Barr reported to Congress on Mueller's findings. Barr said Mueller found no evidence that Trump or his associates conspired with Russia. Mueller did not make a determination on whether Trump obstructed justice.

Graham said he will be speaking with Barr at noon and wants him to testify before his committee.

Washington, DC - 25 March 2019

1. Wide shot of Lindsey Graham walking into the Senate press gallery

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina:

"The Mueller report is complete. I have a phone call with Attorney General Barr at noon about what's next. What's next, I hope, will be that he will come to the committee, release as much as possible of the Mueller report."

++BLACK BETWEEN SOUNDBITES++

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina:

"It's clear to be from the 4-page summary by Attorney General Barr that the Russians did in fact hack into the DNC, the Podesta emails. It was the Russians. There wasn't some 300 pound guy sitting on a bed somewhere. And the conclusion was firm, without equivocation, that no one on the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians when it came to the 2016 election."

++BLACK BETWEEN SOUNDBITES++

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina:

"So I hope soon to have as much of the report released as possible and what happens next? What happens next is that I have been talking since 2017, the end of 2017, about the other side of the story and nobody much appeared, appears to care, but I hope you will find some interest now. That the FISA warrant issued against Carter Page, based on a dossier prepared by Christopher Steel,e is at a minimum disturbing. Whether or not it's a legal I don't yet know. So I'm going to get answers to this."

++BLACK BETWEEN SOUNDBITES++

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina:

"(Reporter question: Is it your belief that the Russians were trying to ...?)

Absolutely. I think, there's things I can't tell you. They were out to get us all. Here's what I told Trump for whatever it's worth. I think the dossier, a lot of it came from the Russian intelligence service. If you just think Russia just likes Trump and hate Clinton you're missing the point of what they're trying to do. They're trying to divide all of us against each other and done a pretty good job of it. They're still at it, by the way, they're still doing this. And one of the things I want to take away from this whole endeavor is to try to find ways to fix it. Critical infrastructure before this debate was power companies, financial services. Now it's got to be the political system. Parties need to realize that they're subject to being attacked, that the vote vote tallying process needs to be hardened, that the social media outlets that we all rely upon and enrich our lives can be co-opted to spread lies to pit one American against the other. If we don't take that from this investigation that the Russians tried to do it and they're going to keep trying then we missed a real big point."

++ENDS ON A SOUNDBITE++

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Washington, DC - 25 March 2019

1. Wide shot of Lindsey Graham walking into the Senate press gallery

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina:

"The Mueller report is complete. I have a phone call with Attorney General Barr at noon about what's next. What's next, I hope, will be that he will come to the committee, release as much as possible of the Mueller report."

++BLACK BETWEEN SOUNDBITES++

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina:

"It's clear to be from the 4-page summary by Attorney General Barr that the Russians did in fact hack into the DNC, the Podesta emails. It was the Russians. There wasn't some 300 pound guy sitting on a bed somewhere. And the conclusion was firm, without equivocation, that no one on the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians when it came to the 2016 election."

++BLACK BETWEEN SOUNDBITES++

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina:

"So I hope soon to have as much of the report released as possible and what happens next? What happens next is that I have been talking since 2017, the end of 2017, about the other side of the story and nobody much appeared, appears to care, but I hope you will find some interest now. That the FISA warrant issued against Carter Page, based on a dossier prepared by Christopher Steel,e is at a minimum disturbing. Whether or not it's a legal I don't yet know. So I'm going to get answers to this."

++BLACK BETWEEN SOUNDBITES++

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina:

"(Reporter question: Is it your belief that the Russians were trying to ...?)

Absolutely. I think, there's things I can't tell you. They were out to get us all. Here's what I told Trump for whatever it's worth. I think the dossier, a lot of it came from the Russian intelligence service. If you just think Russia just likes Trump and hate Clinton you're missing the point of what they're trying to do. They're trying to divide all of us against each other and done a pretty good job of it. They're still at it, by the way, they're still doing this. And one of the things I want to take away from this whole endeavor is to try to find ways to fix it. Critical infrastructure before this debate was power companies, financial services. Now it's got to be the political system. Parties need to realize that they're subject to being attacked, that the vote vote tallying process needs to be hardened, that the social media outlets that we all rely upon and enrich our lives can be co-opted to spread lies to pit one American against the other. If we don't take that from this investigation that the Russians tried to do it and they're going to keep trying then we missed a real big point."

++ENDS ON A SOUNDBITE++

STORYLINE:

The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says his panel will "unpack the other side of the story" of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into President Donald Trump and his campaign.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, who spent the weekend with Trump in Florida, said his committee will investigate the actions of the Justice Department in the Russia investigation, including the FBI's use of a dossier compiled by British spy Christopher Steele.

Graham spoke Monday after Attorney General William Barr reported to Congress on Mueller's findings. Barr said Mueller found no evidence that Trump or his associates conspired with Russia. Mueller did not make a determination on whether Trump obstructed justice.

Graham said he will be speaking with Barr at noon and wants him to testify before his committee.

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The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says his panel will "unpack the other side of the story" of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into President Donald Trump and his campaign.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, who spent the weekend with Trump in Florida, said his committee will investigate the actions of the Justice Department in the Russia investigation, including the FBI's use of a dossier compiled by British spy Christopher Steele.

Graham spoke Monday after Attorney General William Barr reported to Congress on Mueller's findings. Barr said Mueller found no evidence that Trump or his associates conspired with Russia. Mueller did not make a determination on whether Trump obstructed justice.

Graham said he will be speaking with Barr at noon and wants him to testify before his committee.

The South Carolina Senator also said it's clear from Mueller's report that Russia is "trying to divide all of us against each other."  And he said if the public doesn't take that from the probe, "we missed a real big point."

Washington, DC - 25 March 2019

1. SOUNDBITE (English) Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina:

"The Mueller report is complete. I have a phone call with Attorney General Barr at noon about what's next. What's next, I hope, will be that he will come to the committee, release as much as possible of the Mueller report."

++WHITE FLASH BETWEEN SOUNDBITES++

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina:

"It's clear to be from the 4-page summary by Attorney General Barr that the Russians did in fact hack into the DNC, the Podesta emails. It was the Russians. There wasn't some 300 pound guy sitting on a bed somewhere. And the conclusion was firm, without equivocation, that no one on the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians when it came to the 2016 election."

++WHITE FLASH BETWEEN SOUNDBITES++

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina:

"So I hope soon to have as much of the report released as possible and what happens next? What happens next is that I have been talking since 2017, the end of 2017, about the other side of the story and nobody much appeared, appears to care, but I hope you will find some interest now that the FISA warrant issued against Carter Page, based on a dossier prepared by Christopher Steele is at a minimum disturbing. Whether or not it's illegal I don't yet know. So I'm going to get answers to this."

++ENDS ON A SOUNDBITE++

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said Thursday his committee is opening a wide-ranging investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation, but rejected President Donald Trump's call to bring in former President Barack Obama to testify.

The Judiciary Committee will first delve into the Justice Department's decision to dismiss its prosecution of Flynn, as well as actions by the Obama administration to view Flynn's name in intelligence reports during the Russia probe, Graham said.

Graham also said the committee will look into potential abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, during a probe of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The FBI identified Page during the early days of its investigation of Trump's 2016 campaign and secretly targeted his electronic communications.

A federal watchdog later concluded that the FBI made significant errors and omissions in applications it made to a U.S. foreign intelligence court for the authorization to eavesdrop on Page. Those mistakes prompted internal changes within the FBI and spurred a congressional debate over whether the bureau’s surveillance tools should be reined in.

Graham's announcement comes as Trump and his GOP allies begin a broad election-year attack on the foundation of the Russia investigation, including declassifying intelligence information to try to place senior Obama administration officials under scrutiny for routine actions.

Graham also said that he has confidence in Dr. Anthony Fauci and Sen. Richard Burr who is under investigation for potential insider trading.

POOL

Washington - 14 May 2020

++EDIT STARTS ON SOUNDBITE++

1. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R) South Carolina:

"We will be conducting oversight of all things Crossfire Hurricane, beginning the first week in June, I think, starting with the Flynn case then we'll look at the Carter Page warrant application. We'll be calling all the people who signed the warrant, and we'll be asking questions, should there ever have been a Mueller investigation, was there really any evidence in 2017 of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia? As to unmasking, we'll be asking questions about that regarding General Flynn, but as I said in my statement, no president's above the law but we do have separations of powers. And I think it'd be a bad precedent to compel a former president to come before the Congress. That would open up a can of worms and for a variety of reasons I don't think that's a good idea but we will do a lot of oversight over all things Crossfire  Hurricane.

(Reporter: Senator Burr has decided to resign.)

Yeah, he's stepping down until the investigation is over. He wants to make sure the committee can function without any distraction I applaud him for that decision. I have every confidence in Richard Burr. I've known him for years. He's one of my best friends. I don't believe he's done anything wrong. He complied with the STOCK Act and the FBI is doing their job and will hopefully have an answer soon and Richard's cooperating so I have lot of confidence in him.

(Reporter: wondering if you still have confidence in Dr. Fauci? There's been a lot of criticism of him.)

I have a lot of confidence in Dr. Fauci. I think he's done a good job for the country. He and Dr. Birx are talking about the health concerns, they're experts on infectious disease. And the President has I think done a good job working with Dr. Fauci. It's okay to disagree with Dr. Fauci but I do have a lot of confidence in him."

2. Graham departs

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said Thursday his committee is opening a wide-ranging investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation, but rejected President Donald Trump's call to bring in former President Barack Obama to testify.

The Judiciary Committee will first delve into the Justice Department's decision to dismiss its prosecution of Flynn, as well as actions by the Obama administration to view Flynn's name in intelligence reports during the Russia probe, Graham said.

Graham also said the committee will look into potential abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, during a probe of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The FBI identified Page during the early days of its investigation of Trump's 2016 campaign and secretly targeted his electronic communications.

A federal watchdog later concluded that the FBI made significant errors and omissions in applications it made to a U.S. foreign intelligence court for the authorization to eavesdrop on Page. Those mistakes prompted internal changes within the FBI and spurred a congressional debate over whether the bureau’s surveillance tools should be reined in.

Graham's announcement comes as Trump and his GOP allies begin a broad election-year attack on the foundation of the Russia investigation, including declassifying intelligence information to try to place senior Obama administration officials under scrutiny for routine actions.

Graham also said that he has confidence in Dr. Anthony Fauci and Sen. Richard Burr who is under investigation for potential insider trading.

POOL

Washington - 14 May 2020

++EDIT STARTS ON SOUNDBITE++

1. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R) South Carolina:

"We will be conducting oversight of all things Crossfire Hurricane, beginning the first week in June, I think, starting with the Flynn case then we'll look at the Carter Page warrant application. We'll be calling all the people who signed the warrant, and we'll be asking questions, should there ever have been a Mueller investigation, was there really any evidence in 2017 of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia? As to unmasking, we'll be asking questions about that regarding General Flynn, but as I said in my statement, no president's above the law but we do have separations of powers. And I think it'd be a bad precedent to compel a former president to come before the Congress. That would open up a can of worms and for a variety of reasons I don't think that's a good idea but we will do a lot of oversight over all things Crossfire  Hurricane.

(Reporter: Senator Burr has decided to resign.)

Yeah, he's stepping down until the investigation is over. He wants to make sure the committee can function without any distraction I applaud him for that decision. I have every confidence in Richard Burr. I've known him for years. He's one of my best friends. I don't believe he's done anything wrong. He complied with the STOCK Act and the FBI is doing their job and will hopefully have an answer soon and Richard's cooperating so I have lot of confidence in him.

(Reporter: wondering if you still have confidence in Dr. Fauci? There's been a lot of criticism of him.)

I have a lot of confidence in Dr. Fauci. I think he's done a good job for the country. He and Dr. Birx are talking about the health concerns, they're experts on infectious disease. And the President has I think done a good job working with Dr. Fauci. It's okay to disagree with Dr. Fauci but I do have a lot of confidence in him."

2. Graham departs